Westside's Bad Boy
by Striped Candy
Summary: Katsuya has never known a life outside of the ghetto he lives. He's been in and out of gangs since he was 10, accustomed to the violence and drug/alcohol abuse that comes with it. Katsuya has given up hope that he will be able to make a better life for himself; nobody will help trash like him. But just this once, he'll turn out to be so wholly wrong. Eventual puppyshipping.


**Main Pairing:** Seto/Jou

**Other: **Yami/Yugi, Bakura/Ryou, Mariku/Malik, Otogi/Honda, Valon/Mai, Anzu/OC, Hints of Mokuba/Shizuka

**Warnings: This fic will contain the following or mentions/thoughts of it:** abuse, a lot of (gang) violence, sexual assault, suicide, drinking, self-harming, swearing, same-sex couples, and sex scenes. If for any reason you are not comfortable with one or more of the aforementioned themes, please find something else to read.

**Disclaimer: **I actually bought the rights to Yu-Gi-Oh! yesterday, but I had a moment of stupidity and let Kazuki Takahashi buy them back from me.

(A/N: This is my first puppyshipping fanfic. I've read what feels like hundreds, so I figured I'd finally start to write my own. I'll try to stay as in character as possible, but I can't promise I'll always be spot on. This is, after all, my interpretation of the Yu-Gi-Oh! characters. Just so you're aware, Jou is 12 and half right now in my story. I decided to make him so young because I wanted the chance to explore his childhood and show how he might have perceived the world, how his childhood influenced him, stuff like that. I didn't want to write about just his teen years and have flashbacks to his childhood. **Warning: There will be no puppyshipping in the first thirteen chapters-I already have those planned out. **Jou still needs to have time to grow as a person-mentally and emotionally-, mature into a teenager, figure out some semblance of his identity, etc. This means it'll take a while before Jou turns 15/16 and goes to Domino High School.)

"Shit!" Ryota hissed at his best friends, Katsuya and Jun. He yanked them out of the Kame Game Shop at an alarming pace. "Hurry up, you fucking bastards! _Go! _That stupid old man caught me shoplifting! We have to get out of here! _Now!_"

Their long, gazelle-like legs propelled them through the streets as the cold, frosty winter air nipped and bit at their faces relentlessly, stinging their eyes and chilling their lungs as they drew a breath. Katsuya punched Ryota's side and gasped, "Stupid baka!" His friend scowled in response.

They all lived on the other side of town, which was where all the nastiest people lived. If you were a prostitute, a whore, an addict, a dealer, a criminal, a gang member (or leader), crazy, or a high school or college drop-out, you lived on the West Side. Ryota, Jun and Katsuya were gang members and wanted criminals, so they fit right in. They were heading to the West Side, or more specifically, Masaru's apartment. He was the leader of their gang, and if he was feeling generous or a gang member pleased him, he let them stay at his place. Ryota, Jun and Katsuya had been kicked out of their houses, and they needed a place to stay. If this errand pleased Masaru, they would have a place to stay for at least a week.

Their gang had nine members: Isamu and Isao, the twins, Jun, Mamoru, Hisoka, Ryota, Kei and Masaru. Katsuya was the youngest, but you wouldn't know. He'd been in Hirutani's gang for two and a half years, but after the whole Miho incident was discovered and went down, he'd gotten out of it and more or less forced his way into Masaru's newly formed group. Masaru wouldn't normally have permitted it; nowadays he'd just kill the wannabe. But he'd let Katsuya in because at twelve and a half, he'd had gang experience, and he'd survived being in Hirutani's group, the biggest psycho-bitch in all of Domino.

After passing The Strip, the boys slowed down to a walk, panting and wiping sweat off their faces despite the cold weather. "Why'd you get caught? You're better then that!" Jun snapped at Ryota.

"It wasn't my fault! I didn't think I would. You saw how crowded it was in there. I was shadowing this one woman and using her as a shield. It made everybody think I was like her son or something. When I got near the middle of the store, I set off the smoker, and everybody started panicking. Made it a lot easier to get their cash. I didn't realize it was a tester smoker, though. Not until the smoke started clearing while I was getting the cards. The old man was a few feet away from me. He saw me stealing the cards, so I ran," Ryota explained harshly. Jun gave him the middle finger when Ryota started to give him the evil eye. Katsuya sighed.

These two never got along. Ryota was strong-willed and arrogant, and completely headstrong while Jun was more cautious and obedient and tended to have a clear head. You'd think their personalities would balance each other's differences, but no cigar. They disagreed on _everything_. What was the best strategy for stealing something, how you should kill someone, how you should handle a rival gang. They'd been arguing since they'd joined the gang six months ago. They were usually able to resolve their arguments with a good fight, but lately they hadn't. Tension was mounting between the two, and Katsuya had a vague feeling it would end with one of them killing the other.

"Did he see your face? It's all over if he did. We'll have to tell Masaru, who'll tell our dad's, who'll beat the shit outta us," Katusya spat out while still managing to slur his words. Boys who lived on the West Side were expected to join a gang and commit crimes. Girls who lived there were expected to become a member of The Strip and sell their bodies. Some joined a female gang or were accepted into a guys' gang. Their initiation was a lot easier then the ones for guys: all they had to do was get sexed in. If a few girls had boyfriends who were in the same gang, they'd form their own gang to show their loyalty to their boyfriends. To get into a gang like Hirutani's was hard; you had to prove yourself worthy. Miho had been Katsuya's way of him proving himself. He'd gotten in right away despite being a BG. His father, Norio, had beaten him less after hearing about it. Norio had even given him a new blanket (read: he stole a second hand blanket). Whenever Katsuya made a mistake while carrying out an "errand" for Hirutani's gang, he was beaten or starved for dishonoring his family by his father, and a few pre-selected members would jump him.

"He shouldn't have. I mean, I was already turning and walking when he saw me. He should've only seen my back." Ryota sounded composed and confident, but the other two heard the tremble of fear in his voice. If the old man had seen . . . it was all over.

"Well, do we tell Masaru or not?" Jun questioned the oldest boy as he wrapped his thin, hole filled jacket around himself. Ryota didn't respond for while. He only bit his chapped, dry lips and then pressed them tightly together as he squinted his eyes to see down the road. "Well . . ." Ryota hedged, looking uncertain. "I don't think we should. I mean, nothing really happened. We got the cards and the cash, and we got away. That's all that matters. 'Sides, the old man didn't get a good enough look at me. Wait. Katsuya, you're _sure_ they don't have any security cameras?"

"Yeah!" Katsuya said, grinning like a hyena. "They can't hire extra help. No way would they have cameras."

"In that case, we don't tell Masaru. We got what he wanted, and we got away. That's all that matters," Ryota decided firmly.

"But the old man _did _see you, even if he didn't see your face. He might have told connections who might have something on us and know what we look like. We're risking getting caught and turned in. Again. Masaru'll be pissed if he finds out and we didn't tell him. None of us can afford anymore jail time," Jun growled.

"Here, give me the loot!" Katsuya yipped in his high, raspy voice, effectively interrupting their argument. "We'll say _I _stole these and that the shitty man saw a bit o' me. Masaru won't hurt me. I can get away with this. I'm practically his beta," the youngest boy bragged, trying to rub his supposed higher status in the gang into his friends' faces.

"More like his bitch," Ryota corrected. He forced out a few short laughs that sounded like gasps while Jun laugh-snorted. They all settled into a comfortable silence while Katsuya glared at them and bared his teeth. He was _nobody's _bitch. Or at least that's what he told himself. He thought about Ryota's comment uneasily. Masaru had always seemed to take a special interest in him. He'd always been a bit more physical with Katsuya, which had freaked the younger boy out initially. But Hirutani always did that with his betas, so Katsuya had assumed that's what he was to his new leader. However, as of late, Masaru had given him . . . given him . . . Katsuya clamped his teeth together and tried not to think about it. It had hurt and earned him one hell of a beating (he still had livid yellowish bruises from that particular beating). And it had been a source of humiliation from the other boys. But surely Masaru had meant well, right? After all, one didn't get (_god _he barely make himself think the word) a hickey from your gang leader if you weren't his beta. Right? Surely his friends were wrong.

Finally Ryota said, "Alright. You'll take the loot and explain to Masaru why we're late and what went down. You'll probably get off free since you're-since you're youngest." He hastily put the bag of stolen goods into Katsuya's hands, who quickly shoved the strap onto his shoulder. He'd turned a light shade of pink from humiliation. Ryota might as well have just said it; he thought Masaru wouldn't hurt Katsuya because he thought Katsuya was his bitch.

The younger boy gulped down his emotions inaudibly and chirped happily, "I'm glad you finally saw reason. I never get to be a part of anything!"

"No shit. You've been unstable ever since the Miho thing happened. And especially after you got outta Hirutani's gang. Neither of them make you reliable. Just wanted in a gang," Jun said distractedly. Katsuya was beginning to shoot his friend another nasty glare-he did _not _like being reminded of that freaky, purple-haired girl, and then realized why Jun seemed so distracted. They'd finally entered the West Side.

It was filthy; the streets were littered mainly with trash, beer bottles, and rags. Dust and grime thickly coated every available surface. Mixed with the snow it had a dirty gray look. The people living inside the rundown shacks didn't look much better. All had gaunt, hollow faces, with skin stretched over sharp bones and dirt under their fingernails. They hacked out loud coughs and wiped runny noses. Moans of pain and the smell of death and decay emitted from some apartments. Bodies of dead animals were laying sporadically in the streets or on the sidewalk.

The whores and sluts of this side permanently had tacky purple lip stick and even tackier sparkly baby blue eye shadow with hastily made buns on top of their heads. Their clothes, which were always in colors of red or black, were always ripped and men made leering expressions whenever those women walked out of their houses.

You could always tell who the drunks were. They staggered around moaning about something ridiculous. For example, one drunk was currently saying, "The elevator bugs got into mah head, oh god, I'm sorry I woke them up . . . Ah! Look at 'em UFO's! Calling out all dem orders! Special lady onboard! . . ." If they were homeless, they typically wore worn, thin brown rags with holes and gloves that didn't cover their fingertips. If they actually had a home, they wore stinky, mismatched, hole-filled outfits that they found in the trash or put together from rags in the street. Most people, besides the whores, sluts, and the homeless dressed this way, unless they were able to steal clothes from a thrift store, which Masaru's gang was able to do. The clothes there were gaudy, worn thin and too big, but they were better then rags.

Members of various gangs were always lighting up cigarettes near light poles, or playing poker in an alleyway. Some blatantly did drugs outside, but most preferred to keep their illegal stash inside. Others hung around The Strip, stealing booze and trying to feel up the pole dancers.

The only drugs that the West Side had were pot, LSD, and crack cocaine, but they were always in abundance, given that there were at least a hundred drug dealers living in this part of Domino.

The three boys were coming up onto Opal Avenue, which was the main street where drug deals went on. Jun muttered, "Should we buy a couple bags from Atsushi and Eito?" Atsushi and Eito were the most successful underground dealers, because they sold all three types of drugs, and always had a big stock.

"Only if we're running low again," Katusya murmured. It was common knowledge that in Domino's gangs, there were four main types of personalities-the gang member who was promiscuous, the one who did drugs, the one who drank, and the one who was bloodthirsty. In order to be a gang leader, you had to prove yourself that you were tough enough to lead a gang and keep your authority. But you also had to prove you were willing to take risks. Which was why Masaru drank, was promiscuous and bloodthirsty. He was also really, incredibly close to crazy, which was why everybody feared and respected him almost as much as they did Hirutani. Katsuya was the one who realized after doing research that _Masaru was not crazy. _He was bipolar, and he didn't take medication for it. He'd told the other boys four months ago. Since they were too poor to afford meds (not they would get some anyway, even if they could; they'd be recognized and get arrested), his gang made do with extremely light doses of drugs and lots of alcohol. It subdued Masaru and made him a bit more bearable. There was always the risk that they might end up killing him. He did drink a lot without the help of his gang members. The gang didn't know all that much about Masaru's condition; Katsuya was the most informed out of all of them, and even then he'd only known enough to say that Masaru was definitely bipolar. So they didn't how badly illegal drugs and alcohol would affect Masaru, other then that if he kept up his intake, he'd be dead by January.

"If we ration the pot to maybe half a pinch every day, and only let Masaru use it, it'll last till the end of the holidays. We've only half a bag of LSD and a bag of crack. We'll need more of those two," Jun said.

"How much of our own money have we got?" Katsuya asked nosily.

"I've got about five yen on me," Ryota said, double checking all his pockets.

"And I've got five as well," Jun chimed in. He held up his yen.

"I've only got three," Katsuya muttered, slightly embarrassed he didn't have as much.

"Well, that's thirteen yen altogether," Jun said, counting and then recounting everything, just to make sure. "We have enough to get either two packs of LSD or one bag of crack. We could double that if we offer to sell some drugs tomorrow."

"We should get the crack; we barely use that. 'Sides, Masaru's beginning to that the supply is going down," Katsuya suggested. " 'Cause we can't work tomorrow; at least, I can't. Norio's starting to get a bit suspicious. He says if I don't say what's up, I got another beating and prostitution coming my way."

"No, here's what we're going to do. We'll go see him and give him the stuff and then hear his report. Then we'll give him nine yen, which is enough to get him drunk if he only buys the tall shots of hard liquor at Blue Moon. It'll put him in a good mood if he gets angry, and it'll earn us extra points if he's happy. Then we'll come back down here and use the extra four yen to buy an extra bag of pot. That way we won't have to worry about using anymore of our emergency stocks," Ryota decided firmly. "Now come on; we have to hurry. Don't want Masaru to have a reason to be pissed."

"Why do we even have to give him our pocket money?" Katsuya whined. "I was gonna use mine to buy a much needed candle and matches. 'Sides, he has the money we got from the cash register. "

"Suck it up you little runt," Ryota hissed, kicking the youngest boy's heels. "Didn't you know? He's using the money to buy food and pay the rent and bills. He'll want drinking money, which we can give him. It'll give us points with him. Now shut the hell up; street over is his and I don't want anybody to hear even a whisper of our discussion."

Katsuya flipped him off, though it was more out of habit then anything else.

As they got near the end of the street, they fell quiet, slowing down their walk and trying to regain a nonchalant, arrogant air. Masaru was wickedly good at reading body language. Ryota, Jun and Katsuya could not afford to let their gang leader know they'd been talking about private matters-Masaru would immediately think it was his business to know, and technically, it was. You couldn't talk about anything private in a gang; all conversations were reported back to the gang leader. This method allowed the leader to weed out any disloyalties or plans of usurping him. Ryota, Jun and Katsuya constantly broke this rule, if only because they were so good at faking body language and knew where they'd be safe to talk about anything. Today, of course, they would have to step it up. Ryota might have been caught on a mission, they were discussing when and how to drug their leader to make him more tolerable, Katsuya was going to have to improvise on how he'd ended up carrying out Ryota's task, and Jun was going to have to do a lot of explaining and helping their "story" seem as real as possible.

Ghong, one of the first members of Masaru's gang, had tried doing something akin to what Ryota, Jun and Katsuya were about to do. He hadn't gotten away with it. Masaru had found out Ghong was lying big-time and went berserk. He'd kicked all the gang members out of his house except for Ghong, who had gotten knocked out, then was stripped and bound and gaged to a pole in Masaru's bedroom. He'd undergone torture for a day or two-no one in the gang knew how long. All they knew was that Ghong had been beaten, had words like 'demon' or 'evil' carved into his skin, and then was killed by suffocation. Masaru had dumped him into the river at the edge of Domino.

Everybody else in town knew Masaru had been behind the murder, but nobody could prove he'd done it. He'd made sure that his gang stayed silent by promising to dust them. Masaru always kept his promises. Masaru was also very good at getting away with murders, which was why Ryota, Jun and Katsuya had to be so careful today. Masaru had been getting increasingly unstable all week, just like when he'd dusted Ghong.

"We're here," Katsuya mumbled. The three friends stared up at the apartment complex where Masaru lived with pale faces and snow dappled bodies. They shifted uneasily for a moment, all silently daring each other to speak, to give _some _kind of quick pep talk before they faced their gang leader. Finally Ryota spoke up, though his voice was soft and composed. "You guys know the drill. Don't act standoffish or nervous, or else he'll suspect us. I've changed my mind about who's going to talk-Katsuya, you won't. I'll do the talking since I'm oldest and in charge of this mission. That means you guys will be spared any punishment if he finds out we're lying to him. Katsuya, since you have the goods, you'll just jump in every now and then to explain why you supposedly had to steal them. Just as a precaution, you should know: if I have to make up anything, just go with it. Improvise. We can all do that rather well. If he takes in his bedroom one at a time alone to interrogate us, stick to the story I told you guys about what happened when I stole the goods, but say Katsuya stole them instead. Don't mention our conversation of drugs; say that we were discussing which prostitute we think is the best on our way home. If he asks what our final thoughts were on the subject, just say which woman you like best, and bad mouth the other two's taste in women and their bumper kits. Just so you're both aware, I'm going to say that I think Kimiko is the best."

Jun nodded. "I'm going to say Aimi."

Katsuya sighed, realizing he didn't really have a say in Ryota's plan. "I'll just say Momo, then."

Ryota nodded. "Alright then. Let's go."

They entered the complex one at a time in order of age: Ryota went first, then Jun, then Katusya. "We're going to have to take the stairs, which is a bitch, because Tamiko still hasn't gotten 'round to fixing the elevator shaft," Ryota grumbled.

The other two groaned in annoyance, but didn't bother to voice their complaints. Tamiko was the complex's official engineer (or at least, that's what she called herself. Everybody else just said she was like an interior designer and repairer). She was fantastic with fixing things and creating new things that helped the other residents feel a bit more comfortable. Tam-tam, as everybody called her, had just finished fixing and repairing the heating system and the AC, so now there would be more heat in the building during the winter and cool air during the summer. No one really wanted to know how she'd managed to fix it and planned on keeping it going. You had to pay the bills for electricity, and there was no way the system was working on a legal basis. It was working 100% correctly, so nobody wanted to complain or ask questions. The less everybody knew, the better.

Katsuya personally hated taking the stairs because Masaru lived three stories up. It wasn't the height he had a problem with-Katsuya did have a bad habit of trying to scale all the buildings he could. No, it was the fact that they had to walk up the stairs. He wasn't one of those freaks who got scared of everything. Oh no; not him. He'd seen too much over the years to feel panic or fear. Katsuya's problem was that the stairs were long and thin. They were rickety old stairs that could barely support the railings, let alone a real human being. Once, when Katsuya had been walking up the stairs about a month ago, one of the stairs in between the second and third story had collapsed and fallen. Katsuya would have fallen as well and died if his hands hadn't shot out and latched onto the thin metal railing. That had started to to come off too, so he'd awkwardly and quickly made his way over to a sturdy little platform where he could lift himself back onto solid ground. That had alarmed him quite a bit, though he'd be loath to admit it.

As the boys mounted the steps and began to lightly trot up them, they began to unconsciously smooth down their clothes and attempted to make themselves look more presentable. Katsuya lifted the strap of the bag off his left shoulder and carefully moved the bag around so that the strap now rested on his right shoulder. He noticed that Jun's hands were trembling slightly and that Ryota's jaw had tightened from nerves. He paused, taking in a deep, silent breath and tried to reassure himself that things would be OK. Masaru would buy their story. He had to. If he didn't . . . well, Katsuya wouldn't dwell on it. The punishments that could befall a gang member were not something you contemplated, no matter what.

At last, and all too soon, they had arrived at apartment 7F, the dirty, grimy and unwelcoming apartment where Masaru lived. There was a small, ragged brown mat in front of the door that said "Nice Underwear Bitch".

Ryota didn't pause for a moment, but there was a noticeable in his demeanor. Instead of the nervousness hid by anger, he now moved with confidence and submissiveness. Ryota rapped his knuckles against the door. After a moment, the door was opened by Hisoka, the most reserved and quiet member of their gang. "C'mon. Masaru's waiting for you in the living room," he murmured in his quiet, lilting voice. The boys shuffled inside the cramped entrance and spilled into the main but small hallway, where they threw their jackets carelessly onto the floor. Afterwards they followed Hisoka into the living room, where pizza boxes, dusty and used glasses, and napkins littered the floor in front of the small boxlike TV. The rest of the gang was sprawled out on the two couches, sitting awkwardly on one of the small, mismatched chairs or somewhere on the floor.

Masaru was sitting on the bigger couch, absentmindedly watching whatever was on the TV withe rest of the gang-from the sounds, it was probably a bad action movie with lots of explosions. He flicked his eyes up when Hisoka returned with Ryota, Jun and Katsuya. Masaru said nothing for a moment, instead choosing to let an arrogant smirk wiggle its way onto his face. The three boys held their breath, forgetting for a moment that they had something that Masaru wanted. It occurred to Ryota after a minute why no one was speaking, and he jabbed Katsuya hard in his ribs. Katsuya molded his face into a blank expression, trying and succeeding at not showing how much that had hurt. He yanked the bag off of his shoulder and tossed it at Masaru, who caught it neatly in one hand.

They watched as he pawed at the contents of the bag, looking pleased. Finally he looked back up and drawled, "Well, I didn't think you little pieces of shit could do it, but you succeeded. Good for us, because I needed the cash. I was about to be on the nut. We're gonna have to be real the rest of today; the guy I gave a bitch mark for boning out challenged us to a demonstration on our own turf. We need to get another breakdown and a deuce and a half."

(A/N: It should be noted that Katsuya's inner monologue will mature and change as he gets older; I'm just trying to stay as in character as possible. It always kind of struck me that Katsuya might not have talked much in his younger years; he may have observed more than he spoke. I only think this because maybe, as he grew up in a presumably abusive household, he might have been nervous that the wrong thing said would have earned abuse.

I researched all about gangs, like how you get initiated into a gang, what they do, the sort of crimes they commit, different types of gangs, how they're formed, and slang-terms. Speaking of slang-terms, I used some in here, and I'm just going to put the term and the meaning next to it down at the bottom. It was kind of awkward writing in gang slang terms; it just felt so weird. Hopefully it sounds more natural in later chapters.

Just so you're aware, I'll do my best to update every Friday, but I'm not committing to a weekly update. This is kind of just like a pet project while I work on the fanfictions I'm more serious about.

**Slang terms:**

**BG: Baby gangster. Very young (7-12 years) children, who are used by gang to act as lookouts, hold drugs, guns, etc. **

**Since gangs use them at an age as young as 7, I decided that Katsuya would join a gang at the age of 10. It's uncommon for a gang to have such a young member, but I needed Jou to be in his first gang at that age. You'll understand why in much later chapters-I don't want to give anything away. **

**Bumper kit: A girl's rear end**

**Be real: prepare for war (I think in this context war means like prepare for a gang fight)**

**Boned out - Quit; chickened out; left**

**Demonstration: Gang fight**

**Deuce and a half: 25 caliber semi-automatic pistol **

**Dusted: Killed**

**Jumped: This means that a few pre-selected gang members or several gang members (severely) beat up a member. **

**Sexed in: This is usually only an initiation process used for girls joining a guys's gang. They have to prove that they want to join by having sex. Some are raped, and some consent to have intercourse, even knowing that they will have sex with someone who's HIV positive or that they'll have to have a threesome or be part of a gang bang. **

**Gang-bang: "A gang bang is a situation in which a person engages in consensual sex acts with several individuals at the same time. Normally there is a single individual who is the central focus of the sexual activity, e.g. one woman surrounded by several men. Rather than serial couplings by two people, the gang bang is defined by the number and simultaneity of the various sex acts such as oral sex, anal sex or double penetration." **(definition found at: wiki/Gang_bang. Because Wikipedia is a credible source in my book)

**To be on the nut: to be broke**

If I missed any slang terms, just let me know and I'll make sure to edit this so you understand what the term means.)


End file.
